Birth in Gaza: a cultural marker, and not a good one.

I was born by Ceasarian long time ago, in a foreign land, and I needed an immediate blood transfusion and other assistance, straight into an incubator. I was very lucky indeed to survive. Much luckier than so many..... I think of the mothers to be of Gaza, and my heart breaks for them.

A news article on the conditions of women in pregnancy and childbirth in Gaza these past 5 months sets the tone of my interest here, as a parent and an adult.

https://theintercept.com/2024/01/31/gaza-pregnancy-childbirth-health-care/

"She lived in a state of fear that impacted not only her mental health, but also the well-being of the baby growing inside of her. In late November, during a temporary truce in fighting between Israel and Hamas, she noticed a difference. “When the psychological tension eased, and the sounds of bombing ceased, I observed a notable increase in the baby’s activity,” she said.

The condition of environment of the mother, and her condition within that these all have an impact, adverse or nurturant, upon the developing child from within the womb onwards. In the case of a genocidal war all around you, the adverse impacts are incalculable, unpredictable other than they will be egregiously adverse. Intolerable and it must be said, entirely avoidable.

Just stop this insane barbaric industrial scale militarised assault upon a civilian population. 

I type out the word 'Stop'. I feel pathetic. 

I feel so weak, even as my outrage and grief and anger are not.

I'm impotent to stop anything, unless I form up and participate within a wider movement of people allied in solidarity to thwart the war makers on our streets, in our hearts and minds and in our legislatures. This we must do, no matter what. This is no longer optional.

There are no justifications for any of what is being done to the Palestinian people that would stand in The Hague as an acquittal.

The murder continues - thus  there are no conditions to be met by anyone before the Israeli Military is ordered to stop - indeed those that have not yet shed blood should legally mutiny from that Institution (the IDF or IOF) to avoid committing war crimes. Israel needs a mutiny, a mutiny for ceasefire and then peace.

Imagine being a parent of small infants and toddlers in all of that horror?

I think of the women in Gaza and West Bank today and yesterday and tomorrow (everywhere war plagues innocent civilian populations) going through last trimester of a beloved pregnancy in the conditions imposed by Israeli Military Assault, supported by USUSK and EU across Gaza and the West Bank.

My god. It's a terrible, terrible scene. 

This is not what these babies are evolved to expect to meet.  

How can their mothers and fathers known peace that their children might know now it too? When it is well understood and widely known that peace in the home is absolutely essential to healthy development of all our children.

The culture that deems that condition we see in war zones an acceptable part of war, which is in and of it self already intolerable and unjust ,is not at all evolved. 

It is not a culture that adapts to a changing world  which is what evolution means - it is instead a cult that demands the dynamic variations and the constant changes of living healthy biology are wrought by it into wealth and power, and for no other.

The Bully Cult is rooted deeply in mistreatment of children and vulnerable persons as collateral damage in its pursuit of dominance. 

It is in inhumane cult. Many are seeing it as it is for the first time, and that is always a difficult moment.

And yet, it is the truth that the vast majority of us are innocent of any of its crimes, even if we pay taxes and they are abused by deployment to violence and destruction, even if we voted stupidly, voted without checking, turned our heads away from the News, we were busy, we are still innocents in these wars. People like us pay the price. They need us as their allies.

That said, in the Western Democracies, we have legitimate tools to gain a majority in our legislatures and we should use our collective and individual innocence as our major leverage - the innocent pay the heaviest price in every war.

No more!

Kindest regards

Corneilius

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When Institutions seek to protect themselves, rather than protect the most vulnerable - the pattern we must confront.

A letter I wrote and sent to various media and political representatives.

"I write as a Survivor. 

In recent articles covering The Catholic Church, the careful host of innumerable predatory clerics, and the case of Ms. Lethby, the serial killer of babies within an NHS setting, the same pattern emerges - an institution seeks to protect it's reputation and status when atrocious abuse is disclosed, the abusers continue to gain access to the most vulnerable and cause more intolerable harm.  When they are eventually stopped, it is already too late.
Avoidable harms to the most vulnerable are not avoided in order to avoid perceived harms to one's public reputation. This is a pattern, a behavioural characteristic, a cultural dynamic.
"The psychology of any given culture or society is both revealed and perpetuated in how they relate to and treat the most vulnerable among them."
The primary task of healthy social management is to prevent harm and to increase safety in any organisation.
From Austerity to Catholic Institutions, from NHS management to the managers of the London Met, from the way Fossil Fuel Industry has masked awareness of what continued use of fossil fuels was long proven to cause, and then how each of these devoted vast PR resources to campaigns of denial and propaganda to deflect responsibility and evade accountability in order to enable continuation of their operations, we see this pattern and the vast harm it causes.
This goes well beyond the 'few bad apples' trope, another careful and often used line of defence. This is clearly a question of unhealthy social management.
Is it not time we turned and faced this problem, this pattern of behaviour, as a cultural and institutional matter of the utmost importance?  
How do we change the psychology of a culture where those who occupy positions of distal power seek to protect their power and in so doing the evade their duty of care to the most vulnerable, leading to more harm rather than more safety? 
Well, the first step is to publicly recognise the pattern, to be open and honest about how wide and deep it penetrates our Society, with a view to breaking that pattern. 

Kindest regards

Corneilius

Thank you for reading this blog.

"Do what you love, it is your gift to universe."

This blog, like all my other content creation work is not monetised via advertising. If you like what I present, consider sharing my content. If you can afford the price of a cup of coffee or a pint of beer/ale/cider for a few months, please donate via my Patreon account.

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